Don't worry. That's the
message I want to send to Carolina basketball fans. It's okay for your team
to look not so good for a few games. There's only one thing that matters in
the end: the team's performance in the month of March.
Perfect seasons are quite
rare. That's what makes them so remarkable and noteworthy. No one will ever
forget about UCLA's 88-game winning streak of the early '70s. But at the same
time, very few will forget about the 1985 Villanova Wildcats at 25-10, and the
1988 Kansas Jayhawks who finished 27 and 11. After all, they were national champions.
Heck, look at last year's
Tar Heel squad. After a very disappointing season, many even questioned their
tournament bid. But all that mattered was how they proved the critics wrong
with a Final Four appearance.
In 1991, UNLV went through
the season and most of the tournament flawless, but few people remember that
team, the team that finished with one loss and made it to the Final Four. They
remember the national champions from Duke instead.
After all, flaws are what
make us human. And flaws, and losses, build character. In 1996, Kentucky lost
to Mississippi State in the Championship game of the SEC Tournament. Coach Rick
Pitino called it a good loss. He said his team needed to lose before the tournament.
Sure enough, Kentucky won the national championship that year.
You see, losses can be
good. The team that succeeds in the tournament is the team that knows what it
feels like to be down, the team that can overcome difficulties because they've
experienced their fair share. You think a rookie coach could take a team that
had ridden sky-high all season through the emotions and toil of the NCAA tournament?
With a couple of losses to remind the team what it feels like to go down, I
think the chances are much better.
March Madness is what makes college basketball beautiful. There's a reason they call it that. Anything can happen; surprises and upsets color the event with excitement and emotion. And only one team finishes the season with a win. That's basically the team that gets the hottest in March. So don't worry. There's plenty of time left to get hot.